KORN reveal new album has tricks they’ve “never done before”

Brian “Head” Welch says on the new album they’ve “got some amazing tricks” up their sleeves

December 21, 2018

When you grow up as a longtime fan of some band, like Korn, you barely notice how the time flies and how many years the band has been around. So it blows our minds just to think Korn are working on their thirteenth album at the moment. It will be the follow-up to their 2016’s record, Serenity Of Suffering, and knowing Korn, we can state with confidence that they are not intending to repeat themselves on this one.

In a new interview with Consequence Of Sound, Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch revealed a few details of the recording progress. Welch stated the album is still far from completion, plus, there might be more writing, despite how much music has already been written for the record:

“At this time, guitars aren’t finished, and I don’t know if we’re done writing,” Welch said. “We’ve written a lot, but I’m not sure if we’re done writing yet. Bass is not done. Most of the drums are done on the songs we have, and a little bit of vocals have been worked on.”

He also promised the band’s got some “amazing tricks” that fans wouldn’t expect to hear:

“We’ve got some amazing tricks up our sleeves that we haven’t done before, some fun things that the fans are going to be pleasantly surprised by. I know that for a fact,” he assured the source.

The band had previously shared a few details on who’s been working with them on the thirteenth album. It’s John Feldmann and blink-182‘s drummer blink-182’s Travis Barker, with whom they’ve written some new tracks.

“Travis Barker laid the temporary drums for some, and that was cool. We’ve known John Feldmann since ’87 — he was in Electric Love Hogs. So we’re writing with different people. We grabbed [producer] Nick Raskulinecz, and he’s very hands-on and such a fan of music. It’s not a job or a gig to him.” (via Alternative Press)

In a recent interview with DOMkast, Korn frontman Jonathan Davis said there was no rush with preparing the new record. He also described the first recorded material as “groove-oriented” and “very intense”, and promised “it’s gonna be a good record”.

““It’s not like records in the past. We’re taking our time on this one. And the stuff that I’ve heard that we’re recording is very groove-oriented, it’s very intense. It’s gonna be a good record. I’m really excited to get home and start singing on it.” Listen to the full interview below.

Will the new Korn album be more experimental than Serenity Of Suffering?

Knowing that Davis is unafraid to experiment in the studio, the new album can still take an unpredictable direction. For one, the singer is often in the mood to play with the sound when the writing process is almost finished:

“Sometimes they write it and then I start f—king with shit and it turns into something different,” Davis explains. “That’s when I come in and they get all pissed off or they just get scared. I’m, like, ‘See that feeling right there? That’s progress. When you’re feeling comfortable, no. I want you to be scared.’”

Korn’s drummer Ray Luzier has recently asked media and fans to ignore his previous guesses on the approximate release date for the new album:

“Tracking madness!” Luzier wrote in a recent post. “BTW, disregard what I said in the Sabian interview [where the March release date was originally stated] there’s no release date yet kids!”